Who

Kho'l, A'sh

What

Tokath's rock collection prompts questions.

When

It is the thirteenth day of Summer and 85 degrees. It is a bright, sunny day.

Where

Weyrling Training Grounds, Igen Weyr

OOC Date

 


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Weyrling Training Grounds

Here, a wide and spacious field, devoid of all but more of the glare of ubiquitous, fine white sand of Igen: not even a blade of grass dares lift its head against centuries of clumsy draconic antics. To one side, ever-present firestone bins are set, kept supplied by many a hand, while agenothree tanks line the curving angle just outside the barracks, primed and ready for use. Very often, a glimpse of classes in session or dragonets at play may be caught under the open sky under the watchful eye of diligent Weyrlingmasters and older dragons.


There's a watchful weyrlingmaster eye nearby - isn't there always? - but so far as Sholeth is concerned, he has Kho'l all to himself, and they have the training grounds… well, they have at least a good few square meters of turf to call their own. Those ones, right near the firestone bins, but not so close as to be able to touch, or even to properly look inside. Hide that was shining only moments ago has been coated with a fine what dust, thanks to the wind, masking the little twitches of eager dragon muscles a bit better as he tries, so hard, to hold still while Kho'l… contemplates. Or whatever it is he's doing.

All the land doth belong to Tokath! Or so he thinks. He's certainly not worried about barging into anyone's /space/ or anything. Oh, no. That little blue is on the move, the tip of his muzzle making an occasional rut in the dirt as he moves along. There's /inspecting/ to be done…although he's brought up short by one hefty sneeze as he actually inhales some of the soil. Oops. Tokath sits back on his haunches, snorting and shaking his head, then looks around suspiciously. No one..saw that…right? He's quick to right himself though, almost immediately locating a rock that he picks up in his jaws, chuffing happily toward A'sh..who is following along behind. A'sh, who already has an armload of rocks. "Tokath really. Please I must insist that we don't collect any more today.."

It's the sneeze that has them - both of them, Kho'l and Sholeth alike - turning away from their focal points (bin and Kho'l, respectively). « Tokath! » A few awkward steps, to orient the rest of his body in the same direction in which his head is pointing, and Sholeth's wings lift, slightly. « More rocks? » Kho'l, he just looks from the face of his fellow weyrling to the armload he carries, the corner of his mouth and left eye each twitching enough to look at least a bit interested.

« All the rocks! » Tokath seems quite pleased with himself, in fact. Of course, he may be completely forgetting about the rest of the millions of small rocks here and there, like that one two feet from him to the left. He just..doesn't notice. That stone is kept firmly between his teeth for now though, despite the garbled way a trill leaves him. A'sh simply..sighs. The former healer shakes his head just a bit, taking a look over at Kho'l with a slow smile. "Ah, Kho'l. How are you today? This..well this is awkward. I'm terribly sorry, Tokath." Down go the rocks, though he makes sure to keep his feet well out of the way. Then comes the arm shaking..and brushing.

« What about the sand? » asks Sholeth, his wings lifting a tiny bit more as sun-heat warms that last word almost imperceptibly. Almost. Kho'l's own smile back is just as slow, a little awkward. His eyes follow the fall of the rocks more readily than remaining on A'sh. "We're… well." The word is picked out carefully, but he seems pleased with it, glancing up quickly to the other rider, and then, to the dragons. "Is it only rocks?" comes a bit too late to be properly conversational, edging more toward awkward.

A'sh at least doesn't seem terribly phased by awkward pauses in conversation. After his arms are properly dusted and stretched out, the former healer simply finds a decent…less rocky area of grass to settle down on, heaving a tired sigh as he does so. Tokath makes himself busy by taking his new acquisition to the rock pile, and then begins making it neater. « The sand? Sand is rocks? » Completely baffled, he is. The world is once again new! A'sh barely manages to suppress a chuckle, although he does wave his fellow blue weyrling over. "Would you care to sit?" Alas, he is also ever the polite one. "Only rocks, yes. Thank goodness. He's a bit overeager with his collection… I should start carrying a basket with me."

"Or a wagon, maybe," Kho'l offers, much more promptly this time, and with a bit of a smile playing at his face, albeit one that seems more intended for his own benefit than anyone else's. He looks to Sholeth, who is all at once looking, very carefully, at the ground, and even pawing it tenatively. Kho'l then looks to Tokath, to that pile. And finally, he shrugs, and moves toward the that space A'sh has chosen, crossing his legs to sit carefully, almost methodically. « It certainly feels like rocks, don't you think? Especially when the wind blows it. »

Tokath is..enraptured. Now there's more looking at the ground, before pressing the tip of his muzzle against it experimentally. And when there's a bit of wind? The blue lets out an excited noise, wings stretching out just a bit…to shake off all the grit that tries to collect. « It does! That's great. We will need lots of sand.. » A'sh shakes his head a bit, but reaches over to collect at least one of the rocks, turning it over in his hands. "A wagon would be better, certainly. But then I would need a beast to pull it, and it all gets so complicated from there. Tokath here is already trying to plan our weyr. I have tried to tell him it will be a long time before that happens..for now I suppose he'll content himself with decorating the couch." He brightens though when Kho'l sits down, giving a small nod to the other young man. "There are so many of us I feel like I hardly know anyone terribly well.. Did they pluck you up from a hold somewhere?"

« What are you going to do with it? » Sholeth is genuine in his curiosity, taking steps toward Tokath and his pile of treasures that would be careful - that would be graceful - if only his limbs hadn't changed size overnight. Again. It's almost a trip, but he recovers quickly. He's at least getting better at that part. "Not a beast, then," Kho'l discards the idea, quick both in the pace of his words and their initiation. "A wheelbarrow, maybe. If," and the look that had crept up toward A'sh again goes back to the dragons, "you plan to keep it all." He's still looking that way when he nods. "I was just clearing vegetation. Around Keroon. Just before the hatching, I hadn't really met anyone." There's that awkward pause again before he thinks to ask, "What about you?"

"I don't think he'll notice if I put a few of them back." Quietly. Carefully. A'sh lifts his shoulders somewhat though, nodding at the tale of Kho'l's arrival. "I had a few days to prepare, but that was all. I was helping out at Igen River after threadfall and one of the riders brought me back. I admit, I've never known much about Weyr life, but a month here has proven…educational." Even if he has mostly been confined to the weyrling area in that time. "I find I quite like it here."
« They will have colors. And I will…I don't… Well I don't know. But there will be color » Tokath is quite firm on that matter. Plenty of rocks will be available to be painted up…likely just as easter eggs would.

"I've heard dragons have that effect," Kho'l answers, tone a bit droll, carefully settling one hand on either of his knees. His arms tense, testing the brace of the position, then relax once more. Sholeth has looked over to his rider, who can keep looking right back, no problem, no nervousness, nothing awkward. There's hesitation before Kho'l's blue turns to his blue brother once more. « Are you going to colour each grain of sand? »

Tokath pauses, then simply licks one of his rocks. Mmm…it tastes rocky. « …No. There isn't enough paint. But the rocks! They will color. » The former healer's expression remains mildly amused, lips curved upward as he watches his dragon between bits of conversation. "Yes, they certainly seem to. I had been quite ready to simply make a trip of it and then ask someone to kindly return me to the healer hall. Plans do change."

Kho'l nods slowly, agreeing, "They do, that." The tip of his tongue moistens his lips, where, next, his teeth bite as he glances, yet again, over to A'sh. This time, he looks at the other weyrling a little bit longer. "Healer seems like a good profession, though." Sholeth is growing increasingly interested, daring another step closer, daring to bring one eye nearer his brother's pile of rocks. « Which colours do you want them to be? »

A'sh does seem quite pleased with that, nodding somewhat. "Never quite made it to journeyman, but you never know when someone with at least some training will come in handy. Hopefully I can be useful outside of the eventual…Thread business." A thought that has the weyrling looking skyward for just a moment. Tokath lifts his head again to peer at Sholeth though, whirling eyes regarding his clutchmate before picking up a rock, and rolling it toward him. « You can have this one. It will be blue. » And blue rocks are the best rocks. "I haven't made it over to Keroon before. You said that's where they found you?"

Sholeth watches that rock, and takes step back when it seems it will come in contact with his foot. Then, he's nose-to-the-ground, sniffing it, nudging it. « When will it be blue? » is contemplative, distracted, a bit chilly in feel, if certainly not in tone, fault of the young dragon's distraction. Kho'l's attention is back on his dragon by this point. "Yes. There was work there." The young man shrugs, and sits a bit straighter, still maintaining his crossed legs and carefully planted arms.

"So I gather." A'sh simply looks just a bit amused after a moment, and stretches his legs out in front of himself. "Well I'm glad there was work for you, certainly." Tokath's tail twitches. Or flops. Mostly it flops. « When we paint it. When A'sh paints it. He says I'm not supposed to touch the paint. »

"Oh," is the moment of realisation, once Kho'l has backtracked enough through the conversation. "Right," and this time, the smile is a nervous one, "Sorry." Sholeth is still staring at that rock, thinking, puzzling. There's a smell of cold metal edging into his mind when he asks, « Are you going to touch it after it has paint? » It's his dragon's focus that Kho'l picks up on next, lifting one hand from his knee to gesture toward that rock pile. "Is it only rocks that he does?" sounds almost like an epiphany, more than a question.

"Only rocks?" A'sh does seem to consider that a moment, then laughs. "It's what he's focused on right now. He wanted to start bringing dirt in, but I told him no." A'sh is not sleeping on a bed made of dirt. It just isn't happening. Tokath makes a fairly puzzled noise though, the smell of freshly cut grass starting to filter through with his thoughts. « ..Yes? » Maybe? The young dragon seems fairly perplexed, really, and rolls another rock at Sholeth. Maybe another one will satisfy him! « Can't really just color it and leave it…there. Where it was colored. All by itself. »

"Hmm." Both hands are back on his knees, though this time, it seems, only so that he can rub his palms on his pants, preparing. "Sholeth… he's really clean. He's really… precise." He's really making sure that the second rolled rock doesn't hit him, though it bears analysis, just as did the first. « I suppose- oh. I think we're leaving. » Multifaceted attention goes to Kho'l, who is now pressing fresh-wiped palms into the ground beneath him, and getting to his feet. "And if today is like yesterday, I think he's going to be tired soon." A squinting glance up marks out the placement of the sun. "Do you want me to take a rock or two back for you, A'sh?"

"You're probably right about that, though it feels like Tokath gets tired with the changing of the wind." It's always so abrupt! A'sh does get to his feet when Kho'l does though, nodding thoughtfully. "We should probably head back as well if that's the case. I imagine he'll be ready soon." He does look just a bit surprised though, and brightens at his fellow weyrling as he begins to collect the rocks. "Would you? It would certainly be appreciated. I never thought he'd collect quite this many.." Tokath doesn't seem to mind needing to head back in, picking up one rock in his jaws helpfully. He's totally sharing the load! Even if it's not..at all..much of it.

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